Building the perfect minifig - How to search for minifig parts?!

Fizyx

I have never really been good at MOCing, and as a result of my lack of MOCing activity, I don't generally put together my own minifigs out of existing minifig parts.  But recently there was a BAM piece that has forced my hand: The boy scout torso.  My uncle is very deeply involved in the Boy Scouts of America and I know he would be over the moon to have a minifigure of himself (or as close as I can get) as a LEGO boy scout.

Now, I assume that many MOCers have a stash of minifig parts that they tend to pull from for putting minifigs together, but I don't have that, as I keep all my sets bagged together, and I'm looking to give this minifig away anyways, so I'm looking to purchase the additional pieces that I need for it.  I could, of course, browse through all the appropriate selections on Bricklink/Brickset/Rebrickable, but there are at least hundreds, if not thousands, of different print or shape options for heads, legs, and hairpieces, so I feel like it wouldn't be terribly efficient to just look through all of them.

This brings me to the point of this thread:  What methods do you have that you would introduce a new MOCer or minifig builder to that would allow for more efficient searching of minifig pieces in order to put together that one perfect minifig for what you are trying to do?

PJ76uk

Personally I like BrickLink as you can use several keywords to narrow down what items you want to look at, for example what the part is, colour and any distinguishing features that might make it stand out.

For example a BrickLink search for torso green sash scout would show the torso you wanted, searching for head glasses or head beard would show all minifig heads with glasses or beards or you could even use multiple option like head glasses beard etc.

evancelt

Personally I keep my minifigs in their own parts storage: the torsos are taken off the legs and then sorted by theme (pirates, vikings, knights, cowboys, etc). Within a theme, they are then sorted by "purpose" (for castle are they knights or villagers, for pirates are they pirates or imperials?).

I also keep separate areas for:
- hair (sorted by hair type)
- hats (sorted by hat type)
- legs (sorted by color or dual mold)
- accessories like feathers
- weapons (sorted by type)
- tools (sorted by type)
- heads (sorted by type: scared, happy, sideburns, etc)
- hands (sorted by color)
- backpacks (sorted by type)
- neck accessories (mustaches, bandanas, etc)

This makes it pretty easy to whip up a new MOC figure when desired

Fizyx

PJ76uk said:

Personally I like BrickLink as you can use several keywords to narrow down what items you want to look at, for example what the part is, colour and any distinguishing features that might make it stand out.

For example a BrickLink search for torso green sash scout would show the torso you wanted, searching for head glasses or head beard would show all minifig heads with glasses or beards or you could even use multiple option like head glasses beard etc.

This was actually really useful to me already today!  I've had terrible luck with the keyword search on Bricklink when looking for LEGO pieces, so I never really considered trying it for minifig parts, but I'm already having substantially better luck finding minifig parts with it.  Definitely a good tip!

evancelt said:

Personally I keep my minifigs in their own parts storage: the torsos are taken off the legs and then sorted by theme (pirates, vikings, knights, cowboys, etc). Within a theme, they are then sorted by "purpose" (for castle are they knights or villagers, for pirates are they pirates or imperials?).

I also keep separate areas for:
- hair (sorted by hair type)
- hats (sorted by hat type)
- legs (sorted by color or dual mold)
- accessories like feathers
- weapons (sorted by type)
- tools (sorted by type)
- heads (sorted by type: scared, happy, sideburns, etc)
- hands (sorted by color)
- backpacks (sorted by type)
- neck accessories (mustaches, bandanas, etc)

This makes it pretty easy to whip up a new MOC figure when desired

I am definitely going to have to keep this in mind for when I move into a new house and am able to make a more permanent LEGO setup.  I definitely like the way you've split stuff up, I can immediately see how it would make finding the 'right' part much easier :)

CCC

I also separate minifigure parts by theme. Of course, there are crossovers but I tend to keep them where I would use them.

The advice I'd give is:
1) learn typical bricklink terms for minifig part decorations.  Take some of your favourites and look at the inventory of the figures. Look at the terms used to describe the parts, these are much more detailed than the minifig names. Once you learn typical phrases, it is much easier to search.
2) learn to use the * sign when searching. Don't search for button or buttons, search for button* etc.

Bear in mind names are given by the submitter (but can later be changed) so they are not always consistent. 

Fizyx

Oh man, the wildcard search suggestion is great!  I honestly never thought of using wildcards on Bricklink.  Shows how much I'm disconnecting from work (where I use wildcard searches all the freaking time) that it didn't even cross my mind to use them on Bricklink, lol. 

Fizyx

I suppose now that I have been able to put together some minifigs that are as close to 'perfect' as I think I'm going to get, I should post a picture. I ended up making 3 figures, one for my uncle, one for his wife, who he met through scouting and is also highly involved, and my father, who was involved with the scouts for several decades himself.  I think they look pretty decent, and I used all of your suggestions at one point or another in order to put them together.  Thanks for the help everyone!

PJ76uk

Get nice @Fizyx 👍 are those brickbuilt backpacks? Lego did create some backpacks with bedrolls, I have 3 in my collection (Hiker and Jungle Explorer from CMF and Zane from Ninjago Movie CMF) which I use for campers but would be cool to see clearer images of yours if you feel like sharing?

Fizyx

PJ76uk said:

Get nice @Fizyx 👍 are those brickbuilt backpacks? Lego did create some backpacks with bedrolls, I have 3 in my collection (Hiker and Jungle Explorer from CMF and Zane from Ninjago Movie CMF) which I use for campers but would be cool to see clearer images of yours if you feel like sharing?

 

They are actually not brickbuilt, but part 30158, which is an older backpack used between '98 and '04, mostly in the Adventurer's line.  I went back and forth between this piece and one of the newer, more 'backpacking' appropriate backpacks that you mentioned, but the thing that sold me on these was the holes on the outside, which you can see I have used to outfit each figure with a frying pan and a sextant. (There were a couple of compass tiles I thought about using instead, but I liked the ability to hook the sextant up to the backpack and leave the hand not holding a sk.... trecking pole... free :P)  The thing that really tipped me towards the older backpack though, was the fact that they open, and there's enough room to put a small knife inside.  It just made it feel like they were embodying the principal of 'be prepared'... and I know everyone always gets a kick out of little pieces that are hidden away for them to find :D

Here's a pic of the backpack side of one of the figures::

PJ76uk

Not quite sure why my previous comment read as "get nice" when I typed in "very nice"?! Must've made a spelling mistakes and ended up with an autocorrect!

I was in my dark ages when the adventurer theme was out so not seen this part before but now that I have I will need to get hold of at least one! So thanks for bringing this to my attention! As a former scout I agree the ability to hang things onto the pack is definitely the better choice than a modern pack I mentioned 👍